This is a corrected version from 4/11/19.

By Susan E. Campbell
Andrew Meader has spent the past two years on a mission to promote tourism and increase visitation in Washington County.
So far there has been a quantifiable increase in traffic and dollars spent while in the county, but Meader will not take all the credit.
He is part of a triad of professionals working with the governor’s office and the local economic development agency to build awareness of, and bring industry into, the area where Meader grew up and has spent much of his career.
“I sit on the Economic Development Council for the Capital region and got to know Laura Oswald, director for economic development for Washington County,” he said. “We were involved in a lot of meetings and often talked about tourism.”
Oswald told Meader she was always looking for firms like his to promote the county. His company, 8 of Eight Strategies LLC, offers marketing strategy, business consulting, and project management to help clients reach their full potential.
“I threw my hat in the ring,” said Meader. “My primary role is to formulate a marketing plan and to oversee strategy and outreach.”

By Christine Graf
Lake George entrepreneur Jason Kirshon decided to develop a better motorcycle helmet after he attended Laconia Motorcycle Week in New Hampshire in 2008.
“What struck me was that out of 200,000 attending bikers, I only saw one wearing a helmet,” said Kirshon. “And that guy was riding a moped.”
New Hampshire is one of just three states with no motorcycle helmet laws. Nineteen states, including New York, have universal helmet laws. In the remaining states, helmets laws apply only to riders under the age of 18 or 21. The age varies by state.
Kirshon, an avid motorcyclist, understands why helmets are so unpopular. It comes down to comfort.
“There are two types of half-shell helmets,” he said. “The first is DOT (Department of Transportation) approved.

By Michael Billok
If there is one issue that trips up new and small businesses, it is paying employees correctly. It seems simple enough: so long as you contract with a reputable payroll company, you won’t have problems, right? Wrong.
A payroll company can help you—but it is still your responsibility to make sure that employees are paid correctly. And paying employees correctly is not as easy as you might think. Let’s talk about three examples where new businesses go off the rails:
The “salaried” employee. It is common knowledge that when an hourly employee works more than 40 hours a week, that employee must be paid overtime at the rate of time-and-a-half. It is also commonly believed that if an employee is salaried and not hourly, then that employee does not have to be paid overtime.